They Were Fantastic
by JustGail
Summary: A series of one-shot Jily and Marauder-era fics. SEND ME PROMPTS! Rating may change per fic.
1. A Digital Romance

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing except the concept. rated K.

* * *

You and this stranger both like **_magic_,_ fairies _**and **_music_**.

**Stranger:** Hello?  
**You:** Hi  
**Stranger:** ASL?  
**You:** Male 17 England. Wbu  
**Stranger:** Same, only female.  
**Stranger:** So what kind of music do you like to listen to?  
**You:** Nothing youve heard of most likely  
**Stranger:** Are you serious?  
**You:** No thats my friend  
**Stranger:** what?  
**You:** My best friend is called Sirius. believe me hes embarrassed about it  
**Stranger:** Is he named after the constellation?  
**You:** Yep.  
**You:** U like astronomy  
**Stranger:** yeah, but I like chemistry better  
**You:** Meh. im no good at chemistry. not terrible but not good  
**Stranger:** I'm  
**Stranger:** Sorry I accidentally pressed enter  
**You:** its ok  
**Stranger:** I'm curious, do you actually not know how to punctuate or...?  
**You:** I'm just lazy. But if you want I can punctuate and capitalize and everything.  
**Stranger:** oh. :)  
**You:** :)  
**Stranger:** So what's your name?  
**You:** What's yours?  
**Stranger:** I asked first!  
**You:** James.  
**Stranger:** Then hello, James, I'm Lily  
**Stranger:** You're much more polite than most other people on this website  
**Stranger:** So do you do magic tricks or somethin?  
**You:** what?  
**Stranger:** In common interests. You like magic.  
**You:** what? shit. SIRIUS  
**Stranger:** I'm confused.  
**You:** It's hard to explain. I never put in magic, but Sirius must've gotten to the computer while I -  
**Stranger:** While you what?  
**You:** Excuse me while I go strangle my best friend.  
**Stranger:** James?  
**Stranger:** James, are you there?  
**Stranger:** Okay, this is weird and I've never done this before  
**Stranger:** But if you want to contact me again  
**Stranger:** My email is LilyLove  
**Stranger:** (don't judge me I was eleven)  
**Stranger:** I gotta go  
**Stranger:** bye

Stranger has disconnected

* * *

_Conversation began: 11/11 20:38_

**James:** Lily?

**Lily:** James! So you're a real person!

**James:** yep. :) wanna face chat?

**Lily:** can't, my video camera doesn't work  
sorry

**James:** No, it's fine

_20:45_

**Lily:** sorry, I got distracted  
So what's up with you? Is - uh - was it Sirius? - still messing with you?

**James:** All the time. We live together - in boarding school - so it's a little too easy to mess with each other.

**Lily:** Sounds fun. My best friend and I aren't that close anymore... we used to be. He was really cool for a long time. But then he got messed up with a bunch of people that - never mind.  
Do you have any other friends?

**James:** Yes I do, actually. Peter and Remus. Remus is also quite sensitive about his name, but we don't talk about it - it's much easier to joke with Sirius, anyway. What about you? Except for your not-so-best best friend, are you close to anyone?

**Lily:** Well, there's Marlene, and Mary, and I recently got acquainted with a guy name Benji who's pretty awesome.

**James:** wait wait. Is this Marlene McKinnon?

**Lily:** ... yeah?

**James:** She was my neighbor growing up. Now she's Sirius' neighbor. We always joked it was like fate

**Lily:** Shit  
What's his last name? I'm calling Marlene rn

**James:** Black. Mine's Potter, by the way ;)

**Lily:** I'll get back to you  
I'm Evans, by the way

_Conversation ended: 11/11 21:38_

* * *

_Conversation began: 13/12 11:12_

**James:** Happy Saturday!

**Lily:** Why is that?

**James:** I'm on a train heading towards you

**Lily:** It worked?

**James:** It worked. We'll see each other soon

**Lily:** When are you arriving?

**James:** I dunno  
Sirius says we'll be there in about an hour. It's a long ride

**Lily:** Well, I'll be there  
Guess we'll see each other soon, huh?

**James:** See you soon, love.

_Conversation ended: 13/12 11:22_

* * *

_Conversation began: 16/12 15:11_

**Lily:** James, are you there?

**James:** Always :)

**Lily:** Was that a double date?

_15:20_

**James:** Was it?

**Lily:** James...

**James:** Did you want it to be, I mean?

**Lily:** I don't know  
I guess I would've  
I dunno  
yeah, I would've liked it to be.

**James:** Talking to you the past month has been wonderful

**Lily:** But you think we should stay friends  
I get it

**James:** NO NO NO NO NO  
Absolutely not  
I adore you, Lily Evans

**Lily:** So - are we - dating?

**James:** I  
I think we are.

* * *

**A/N:** So, this is my first AU. Between every conversation, except for the first and the second, they talk additionally.

I hope you enjoyed,

JustGail

Edit: For some reason, screwed up with the original file. It works now though.


	2. Everything

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the characters.

This is an AU: James' sacrifice was enough, and Lily lived.

* * *

Everything

"James," she said. She was crying again, and she was thinking about the beginning, because that was what it felt like, she felt like she was traveling back in time and seeing it all again, all of it. "Potter," she said. And she was thinking of the first time she called him James, and it was a mistake, she didn't even think about it, and there was nothing to say after that but call him James again and again and again and again.

She just wanted to sleep for the rest of eternity.

"Why did you have to go?" she asked, and he was so far away. She couldn't reach him, she would never again, would never be able to touch him ever again, he was dead, he was dead – how could he possibly be dead? She loved him, she loved him so much, and he was gone. He died, he was dead, he was leaving her behind with nothing but pain and an urge to understand, but she doesn't understand, and she loved James – she loved James, and there was no longer a James to love.

"Where did you go?" she asked, and she felt her knees wobble, and she gave in. She fell on the ground, and it must have rained because it was muddy and it got over everything and it felt perfect. Unclear, wet, messy, cool.

Her life stopped now, it was on hold until she could hold herself together again. She was picturing him by her side, and he was holding her, comforting her for his own passing.

"_I love you,_" he said.

"LIAR!" she screams. "You're such a fucking liar! Because if you loved me, if you truly, truly loved me and Harry, you wouldn't have left! You wouldn't have disappeared, you couldn't have, not if you fucking loved me!"

She was staring at a ring. It was hers, but she felt ill just looking at it.

"Why did you lie to me, James?" she whispered, and her voice shattered. "Why did you promise to stay forever, why DID YOU GIVE ME THIS RING – " She couldn't finish her sentence. Suddenly she was so angry, she tried to pull it off. It had to come off, because she couldn't bear wearing an empty promise on her hand anymore, and she just wanted to throw it as far away as possible. She had to get rid of it, she had to make it go away, and it was all she could do not to throw up looking at it, at that white-gold ring that he had given her on that fateful day when everything had gone wrong but so, so right and when he had said he_ loved _her, and had promised _till_ _death_ _do_ _us_ _part_.

The ring was stuck.

It was stuck on her hand, and it wouldn't fall or detach or leave her bloody finger. And suddenly she wasn't angry anymore, she was sad again, she was so unimaginably sad.

_Till death do us part._

She laughed, despite the sadness that was creeping in on her, that was living in her veins in her blood in her eyes in her ears in her hair in her nose and in her hands, because that's where James used to live, he used to live in every part of her and now the sadness was replacing it, and she was laughing because death took them apart so much sooner than anyone else would have expected, but they were grateful for their time together, for every minute, because he loved her and she loved him and they were fighting a war that was doomed to end like this.

With death.

_It was supposed to be me, though_, she thought. _ I'm the Mudblood. I'm persecuted and hated. He's – he _was_ James Potter. _

_"It wasn't enough to protect me from my choices,"_ he whispered.

"It should have been," she said.

And then she stood, and she turned around on that bloody white marble piece of shit that said, "_The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death_", and she walked over to her son, their wonderful son that would not remember the way he laughed, and the way he used to help him get on his tiny little broom, and his hazel eyes that were so kind and so true and so _James_. He wouldn't remember it, he wouldn't remember a thing, he would just live on and he would never understand how much the world lost that night when he died, he wouldn't know it didn't only lose James, but also Sirius and Peter, and now Remus was gone and who knew where he went and everything was so fucked up, so fucking bloody fucked up, and everything was such a mess, and he would never know what it would be like growing up with James as a father.

And neither would she.

The looming figure of James disappeared as she reached him, her son – their son – Harry, the person who looked so much like him, so, so much like his father, and as he grew up he was sure to be such a wonderful human being, just like his father.

She would love him, and she would cherish him, and she would be the best that she could, because he was all that was left from James, he was everything.

He was everything now.


	3. Happy Endings

Drabble per request for birthday on August 30th: arashi wolf princess

Happy Endings

**A/N:** This isn't part of the OTTLECHMAJP universe. Therefore, I'm allowing myself some freedom with the characters. If there is a wedding in OTTLECHMAJP it will not be this one. That's it.

* * *

Lily loved white more than any other color. She loved the symbolism of it most, but the fact that it didn't clash with anything – including her hair – was wonderful, as well. She gazed at herself fondly, absolutely adoring the design Marlene helped pick out for her.

"Are you ready?" Speaking of the blonde, Marlene appeared in the doorway at that very moment. Dressed in elegant, light, sun-colored dress robes, Marlene's soft beauty had rarely, if ever, been more pronounced. The makeup artist had really done a number on her, transforming her features into that of a seductress almost; Marlene rarely, if ever, wore makeup in her day-to-day life, but whatever the makeup artist had done definitely worked, though what she did was mostly just adding glamour to the already existing beauty.

"Oh – Merlin, you look gorgeous! You're prettier than I am!" gasped Lily.

Marlene giggled, but continued to insist that there was no way that fact could be true. "You're the bride," she said. "And you look so amazing. James is going to fall on his knees and cry the moment he sees you. You realize he's dreamed of this day since we were like, eleven? This is his happy ending! This is _your_ happy ending!"

Lily laughed. "Yeah, I know." For a moment, the charming smile vanished, only to be replaced, a second later, with another, even wider smile. "I'm going to be married, Marlene. Can you believe it?"

Marlene hugged Lily, tears rolling down her cheek silently. "Yeah, I can," she said, choking back even more tears. "You two were meant to be. I'm so glad that you're – this is going to be one of the best days of your life, and it's now! Now, c'mon – let's get out there. They're waiting for you."

"I love you," they had whispered to each other, "I do" had been said twice, and their vows had been made, and then Lily Evans was Lily Potter and after the party ended the two lovebirds were back in their apartment. There might have been no time for a honeymoon in this war-filled time, but that didn't mean their wedding night wouldn't last to the a.m.'s.

"Good morning, beautiful," whispered a familiar voice in her ear, and her eyes fluttered open to see the familiar ceiling. Lily turned her head and smiled when she saw her fiancé – nay, _husband_ – lying next to her, in front of him two breakfast trays. "I made breakfast."

She smiled and stretched, a content expression covering her features. "I love you," she murmured, leaning in to kiss James. "Potter," she added.

"Yeah, you too," he smiled, and as she sat up he placed the tray on her lap and then positioned himself similarly. "On both counts. I made eggs and toast– I know it isn't much, but – "

"It's perfect, James," she assured him. "You know, I don't think I've ever been happier."

"We finally got our happy ending," he murmured, leaning in to kiss her. "Now, dig in."

And that she did. He really was a much better cook that he gave himself credit for, and they had both finished before they knew it. "Gahhh, that was good," Lily sighed, moving both trays away from them and leaning into James. She then stared silently ahead, and when James started tracing patterns on the skin of her arm, she remembered suddenly something that had been on her mind, steadily in the very back of it, the entirety of yesterday.

"What are you thinking about?" he whispered softly in her ear. She shuddered, and said in a similar tone, "Nothing. Just…"

"Just what?" he straightened up, pushing her away so they could look each other in the eyes. "What is it? You don't regret – "

"No, of course not!" she sighed. "Potter, how many times do I have to tell you – I'm here for good. I love you. I was just thinking about Se-Snape. About how – " she hesitated. "Snape was my best friend ten years ago, and we didn't even know each other yet. And he would've hated every moment of this. But I loved it. I loved him for a while – and then – and now – and everything's so different now, I can't even – " she sighed again. "And I'm so happy, and for a moment I felt guilty for leaving him behind. He was my best friend for years, and now he's not a part of my happiness."

James frowned, thinking silently for a moment or two. Lily watched him with nervous eyes, until finally he said, "I never liked Snape. You know that. But if you two hadn't fought with each other, and he was still a vital part of your life – and you wanted him here – I would – "

"Don't, don't – " Lily tried to interrupt, but he cut her off too. "I'm just saying," James continued, "that if he were vital to your happiness, I would not object to him being at our wedding.

"That said, I know you're a kind woman. It's one of the many, many reasons I love you – but Lily, don't feel bad for leaving him behind. He was toxic, you've said so to me yourself. And Lily – you finally got your happy ending, and there's a reason he isn't a part of it. So don't feel guilty for being happy. Whatever you do, never feel guilty for being happy."

"It's _my_ happy ending," she whispered. "And he used to be part of it."

"And now he isn't, and you're still happy," he mumbled, leaning in and kissing her forehead softly. "And I love you, and I hope to dear God you love me because we're stuck together now. So let's please open our new life together – and let's make it a good life."

"Our happy ending," she summarized, and they both laughed, and then –

Well, they _are_ newlyweds, after all.

* * *

I'M SO SORRY I WAS SUPPOSED TO POST THIS YESTERDAY AND I FORGOT I AM A TERRIBLE PERSON.


	4. Moments Like This

**Disclaimer:** Sad but true, I do not own anything but the structure of the words here.

* * *

Moments Like This

Three more moments, and they won't be happy anymore.

Three more moments, and their worries – their wonderful, everyday worries, all about surviving – will be gone. Irrelevant. Forgotten.

In just three moments, the sound of their laughter will forever echo in the emptiness.

Harry had said something funny that morning. Something about a crow he saw through the window. Or maybe about a pumpkin. He had laughed. Three more moments, and there would be no one to remember anything.

Three more moments and there won't be anything except green flash after green flash and the sound of a baby crying.

Three more moments –

Nobody would remember this moment, or the next, but the moment after that moment will be the most important moment in the history of the world.

_Can you count to three, Harry?_

_One, two, three -_

* * *

Technically not Jily. Oh well. Happy Holloween.

JustGail


	5. Nights Are

**Disclaimer:** Please don't sue me. Rated T.

* * *

Nights Are

Some nights are cold as ice and as slow as growth. They take their time, but eventually reach every corner, every nook and cranny, every syllable of every word shaking with its power. These truly cold nights can hold you and keep you in their grasp long after they're gone, with broken memories and shattered-glass thoughts. They remind you that tears will only leave burn marks on your skin and that the comforts of home can't keep out the vicious snow.

Some nights are as hot as hell and as quick as a breath. They're fast, looking for an exit from this unbearable heat, jumping from room to room only to find themselves still trapped. These truly warm days can motivate you to change your life from the inside, because it's simply too hot to not be restless. They remind you that the world will end in fire and that ice is temporary and that flames are a part of the human condition.

Some nights are tired, are giddy, are drunk, are drenched, are colored purple or orange, are sad, are angry, are all of these things at once.

* * *

Some nights are grief. Some night are celebratory. Some nights are empty.

* * *

The 31st of October, 1981, was a night of grief, though by all accounts, it should not have been. The Potter family was broken apart not by a murderer, but by a trusted friend. Yes, had there not been a true monster walking among the costumes, the Potter family would have lived happily ever after; but the skin-walker, the man who had truly been wearing a costume, the _rat_, was at fault for the orphaning of Harry Potter.

The grief of this night was in the bodies of a young couple, in the tears of an old friend, in the cries of a young rebel, in the arms of a half-giant. The grief of this night was in the embers of the charcoaled walls of what once was a home. The grief of this night was in the wind biting Hagrid's face as he flew away on what had once been Sirius Black's motorcycle. The grief of this night was in Sirius' future unlawful imprisonment and Harry's coming lonely childhood. The grief of this night was all encompassing, and the entire world grieved.

* * *

The 1st of November, 1981, was a night of celebration, though perhaps, a bit tastelessly. Voldemort had been defeated, and by the young child of the Potters! True, it was a terrible shame that two promising, brilliant, beautiful parents had to give their lives, it was awful what Sirius Black had done earlier that day to poor Peter Pettigrew, it was regretful that Harry Potter did not have a home anymore, but the worst evil that the Wizarding World had ever seen was defeated, and to bring out some Firewhiskey was hardly a bad thing, right? The dead can wait for their time; they'll never have to wait again.

The celebration in this night was in the Muggle news and babies left on doorsteps. It was in Dumbledore chuckling and McGonagall standing frozen on a wall. It was not a true celebration, for those who cared, did not celebrate, and those who celebrated, did not care.

* * *

And so we are left with the 2nd of November, 1981, a night of emptiness.

The Boy Who Lived was tucked safely in the Dursley's home, even if he was being ignored. A letter had been read, and this was enough to keep the boy, though he was not wanted. The screams of a spoiled child pierced the air but they were not truly loud enough to fill any of the voids left by the deaths of James Potter and Lily Potter nee Evans. The cries of Harry, with his tufts of black hair and his green eyes, were not met with the loving arms of his adoring young parents, but instead with cold disdain.

This was a night of emptiness not because there was nothing, but because there wasn't what should have been there. James and Lily were gone, Sirius was being sent to prison, Peter was thought to be dead, Snape had secured a position at Hogwarts for nothing much and Remus had been left alone in the world. And Harry was crying with no one to hold him.

But this is how that sentence should have read:

Snape had been imprisoned as a Death Eater. James and Lily were happy and free, and Sirius and Remus and even Peter were crashing, hungover, at their place. (Perhaps even Marlene or Mary or Dorcas or Benjy had been there, too.)

Harry had woken up early and been obnoxious all morning. He had passed from hand to hand, from hungover face to bright red hair. And everyone would have been happy.

And that night, that day, that year, that lifetime – it was empty, because none of these things had come to pass.

* * *

On November 2nd, 1979, James Potter and Lily Evans were like a fever, burning from each other and being near each other and loving every moment of it. They were holding each other too tight, but each of them refused to ever let the other go. They had been through so much, and right now, all they did was seek release.

* * *

On November 2nd, 1980, James and Lily Potter huddled for warmth on the roof of their home. They had gotten Harry to sleep, finally, but knew it would not last long. They didn't get many evenings together, as they were so often off on missions from the Order, but when they did, on nights like tonight, they would stay up and look at the stars and they would kiss and they would talk and talk and talk. Or sometimes they would sit in silence, because just being near each other on a cold night such as this was better, infinitely better, than being alone. It was _enough_.

* * *

On November 2nd, 1981, James and Lily Potter had been buried. To the funeral came very few grievers and quite a lot of celebrators.

Harry Potter was crying.

* * *

**A/N:** It's been a while since I've written a straight forward one-shot. This is, debatably, one of them. I'm sorry for any emotional trauma caused by this fic.

(This was intended to be my Jilytober 2015 submission but then they both ended up dead. Oops.)

JustGail


	6. It's a Small Town

**A/N:** AU based on the following prompt from Tumblr: "Oh God."

"What?"

"I can feel it."

"…Feel what?"

"A crush. A crush is coming on to me. This needs to be stopped. Hit me or something please, this can't happen."

Enjoy.

(Can also be found on my writing tumblr.)

* * *

It's a Small Town

Sunday afternoons, in James' not-so-humble opinion, are the worst part of creation. Nothing exciting ever happens on a Sunday afternoon. Especially not in the little town James lived in, Godric's Hollow, population: practically zero for all intents and purposes.

It was James' belief that Sundays, in general, are rather boring. In the morning, the only activity going on is church, which he, as a rather loud and obnoxious atheist, avoided at all costs. In the evenings, James and the three other boys his age in town - Peter, Remus, and Sirius - tended to get pissed to celebrate the end of the weekend, or because Sirius managed to swipe a nice bottle of Whiskey from his no-good-for-nothin' dad, or because they felt like it.

But between lunch and dinner every Sunday, Peter was with his mother, Remus was doing homework, and Sirius was attending court-ordered therapy, and therefore James was left on his lonesome to do absolutely nothing for five hours.

James did not go well with boredom.

About a month of Sunday afternoons back, he set fire to one of the street cats by accident.

A little while before that, on a particularly boring afternoon, he went to The Three Broomsticks (which was technically a pub but also the only real restaurant in town) and ate seven servings of pancakes, three servings of waffles, and two whole cheesecakes. Around the second serving of waffles he threw up on the floor, only to declare that he was now hungry again and continue eating.

Just last week he had broken the window to the vacant lot on Fifth, which, as he found out later when his mother was forced to pay for repairs, now belonged to a family which was moving in that very week. (Godric's Hollow was so small and insignificant they never changed the names of the streets to anything interesting; the main road was called Main, the second street was called Second, and that was that. James _hated_ that about Godric's Hollow. He didn't understand why anyone would want to move _in_ instead of _out_.)

Luckily enough, this Sunday Sirius' court-ordered therapy was canceled for some reason or another, and though Remus was still doing his homework and being generally whiny, Peter had been persuaded to skip mommy-time for once and to sit on the steps leading to The Three Broomsticks and make generally rude comments at passersby.

Yeah, James Potter did not react positively to boredom.

It was around three-thirty PM that James had begun to feel hungry, as teenage boys are wont to do. Deciding that, as he was literally sitting on the steps of the closest thing to a diner Godric's Hollow had, he should probably just buy himself something to eat, he said to his friends: "I'm _starving_. Let's go get something to eat or whatever."

And as the three boys were walking into the pub-turned-family-restaurant James bumped into someone. It was a small thing, really, completely his fault, and had he simply murmured an apology and moved on it wouldn't have been a problem at all. But James was not a polite young boy, and he decided to move on and towards the food that he could already picture.

He was rather surprised to hear a coughing sound from behind him, very clearly expecting him to react to it. _Nobody_ in town expected James to be polite; that simply wasn't who he was, and as everybody in town had known him since he was born, everybody in town knew that.

He turned, only to see the most beautiful girl in all of existence standing right in front of him. She had red hair and green eyes, but most importantly, she was _angry_ at him for not apologizing.

It was _adorable_.

"Excuse me?" she said when he didn't respond. James continued gawking at her (and, admittedly, at her amazing legs). "Aren't you going to apologize?"

"For what?" asked James. "I didn't do anything. Sirius, did I do anything?"

Sirius shrugged. "Not that I saw. You coming?"

"Hey!" said the girl. "You can't go before you apologize for practically tackling me."

James raised an eyebrow. "You don't seem quite that damaged to me."

"Jerk," she said. "Why won't you just apologize?"

"Why won't you just let it go?" he said. Sirius laughed for no good reason, and Peter joined him.

"Ugh, fine, whatever," the girl said, turning to leave.

"No, wait," said James quickly. "I'll apologize."

The girl turned around, surprised. "You will?"

"Sure," James said, quickly adding - before his courage vanished - "if you tell me your name."

The girl huffed. "Um, okay? Name's Lily. Lily Evans."

_Evans. Evans Evans Evans_ \- why did that name sound so familiar? "Mate," Sirius whispered to him, "isn't that the name of the family who's moving into that house on Fifth? The one you damaged?"

_Shit_.

Lily's eyes widened in surprise. "That was _you_?" she cried. "Oh, I don't even want your apology. You are nothing but trouble!" She once again turned to leave, but before she managed to close the door behind her, he yelled one last thing:

"Name's James, love. See you around!"

She paused, having clearly heard his name, then slammed the door behind her. James and the rest sat down at their usual table in the back.

"What d'you want to get?" asked Peter. "The usual."

"I'm not hungry anymore," admitted James. Then, horrified: "Oh God."

"What?" asked Sirius, looking at the menu.

"I can feel it."

"…Feel what?"

"A crush. A crush is coming on to me. This needs to be stopped. Hit me or something please, this can't happen."

Sirius hit him. "That girl? The fuck is wrong with you, Prongs?" (How he got that nickname was a long and rather embarrassing story.) "She was a complete bitch, how the hell is that a turn on for you?"

"She was sort of right to stand her ground," said Peter. "James did bump into her without apologizing. And she just moved in. She doesn't _know_." He didn't have to explain what it was that she didn't know.

"Yeah, well," said Sirius. "She was still a bitch. There's a limit, you know? All James did was bump into her, she didn't have to turn it into an entire thing. What a drama queen."

"Look who's talking," James teased, laughing. "Whatever. I'll get over it soon."

Sirius exhaled in frustration. "Yeah, sure. Can we _eat now_?"

And so they ordered, and laughed, unaware of the dozens of quite eventful Sundays to come, all caused by this one, extremely boring one. And they talked and joked, forgetting, for the moment, all about the girl with the red hair. And they were okay. They were fantastic.


End file.
